SKY PRIZES: Here’s a sidewalk view of four of the Midtown East addresses that could become landmarks; above and from top to bottom: 270 Park Ave., 125 Park Ave., the Graybar Building and the Benjamin Hotel. (
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Of the eight Midtown East buildings being weighed for landmark status, which — if any — should be immortal?
In the name of democratizing the city’s landmarks designation procedure, Realty Check invites you to weigh in.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission said last week it’s “considering” the eight for permanent-preservation status.
The LPC is often criticized by landlords and preservationists alike for operating mostly in secret. So allow us to let the sun shine in.
Write to me at the e-mail address below, and we’ll publish the most interesting responses. No big prizes, but we’ll take writer of the letter we like best out for a meal as part of our restaurant-reviewing rounds.
The LPC’s list of buildings it might designate is merely the first batch. In a Feb. 28 update on its rezoning proposal, the City Planning Commission cited 32 buildings which the LPC has “identified as potentially eligible resources” — i.e., as possible landmarks.
Of course, the proposals come amid a furious struggle over the city’s proposed Midtown East rezoning, which — beset by scores of complexities and catches — would allow larger buildings to replace old ones in a 78-block area around Grand Central from 39th to 57th streets.
Most landlords and developers support rezoning and oppose the possible flurry of landmark designations.
“We believe most of these properties are copycats,” Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York lobbying organization, said yesterday.
Various preservationist groups have called for landmarking a total of 55 properties in the rezoning area — but rarely agreed on which ones deserved protection.
“For many truly great buildings, you would cross the ocean to see them,” Spinola said of beloved landmarks like the Chrysler Building.
“But for these you wouldn’t cross the street.”
The LPC plans to meet with their owners soon to discuss the situation, before deciding whether to formally “calendar” the properties — a step that usually leads to designation.
Here’s a look at the Lucky (or unlucky) 8, with our 2 cents thrown in.
1) 270 PARK AVE. Largest by far, the 1961 tower designed by Skidmore Owings & Merril was built for Union Carbide. It’s now world headquarters of JPMorgan Chase, which owns and occupies all of its 1.5 million square feet. It’s the Park Avenue office building that most embodies the International Style esthetic idealized earlier by Lever House and the Seagram Building — but short of their originality.
2) 125 PARK AVE. SL Green’s 654,852 square-foot office tower at Pershing Square (42nd Street ) was designed by York & Sawyer.
Like many commercial buildings owned by major New York real-estate companies, its interior is much more modern than its 1922 vintage would suggest. Its ornate facade is distinguished by bricks set in alternating horizontal, vertical and diagonal rows.
3) GRAYBAR BUILDING. SL Green drew the unlucky straw as the only owner of two buildings on the list.
The 1927 structure with 1.24 million square feet boasts an appealing Art Deco base and bas-relief figures representing communication, but is devoid of ornamentation above the third floor. It reads as a big, blank brick wall recessed in the center. A modern glass penthouse around the 10th floor undermines whatever Jazz Age atmosphere it might once have had.
4) 830 THIRD AVE. The Modernist facade of this compact, SOM-designed structure (only 162,000 square feet) fully expresses its time, 1956. Aquamarine-tinted windows separated by white spandrels suggest the front of an Elvis-era radio — elegant, precise geometry amidst a chaotic street environment.
5) 445 PARK AVE. If it’s landmarked, the owners of this 320,000 square-footer can forget about ever doing a world-class redesign of the sort L&L plans at obsolescent 425 Park next door — or any redesign at all. Characterized by uninterrupted windows marching around the 57th Street corner like a parade, and polite setbacks near the top, this 1947 structure is “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” five years ahead of its time.
The three hotels under consideration all have gloomy, unornamented brick facades between their bases and their tops.
6) RADISSON LEXINGTON HOTEL, 509 Lexington Ave. Lots of brick and little charm above the base, although the upper-level setbacks and crown evoke a “skyscraper” best seen from a distance. Owner DiamondRock Hospitality bought it for $333.7 million in 2011 and can’t be happy to see its long-term options for the property restricted.
7) MARRIOTT EAST, 525 Lexington Ave. Its history is more colorful than its profile. It was built in the 1920s as the Shelton Towers. Later it became the Halloran House. Although its setbacks are regarded as pioneering by some, it reads to most of us as a cascade of monotonous brick.
8) BENJAMIN HOTEL, 557 Lexington Ave. More weathered, brown brick rising endlessly above an only moderately interesting base. It has more vertical thrust than the others, but its handsome crown, like the Radisson’s, can only be seen from far away.